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George Burns (January 20, 1896 – March 9,
1996) was a legendary United States|American
vaudeville comedian who went on to work in movies,
radio, and early television.  He became well-known
for his longevity despite an affinity for alcohol
and cigars, and for his miraculous career comeback
at 79 years of age, arguably becoming more popular
and well-known in his octogenarian|80s and
nonagenarian|90s than at any other point in his
career.

==Life==
===Early years===
He was born as Nathan Birnbaum to Louis and
Dorothy Birnbaum, the ninth of twelve children, in
New York City, New York.  Burns' father was a
substitute cantor at his local synogogue, but
didn't work very often.  When the flu epidemic
arrived in 1903, Louis had his chance to earn some
real money, but contracted the flu and died.

George started working in 1903 after his father's
death, shining shoes, running errands, and selling
newspapers.  He landed a job as a syrup maker at a
local candy shop, at the age of seven.  It was
there that he was discovered. 

"We were all about the same age, six
and seven, and when we were bored making syrup, we
used to practice singing harmony in the basement.
One day our letter carrier came down to the
basement. His name was Lou Farley. Feingold was
his real name, but he changed it to Farley. He
wanted the whole world to sing harmony. He came
down to the basement once to deliver a letter and
heard the four of us kids singing harmony. He
liked our style, so we sang a couple more songs
for him. Then we looked up at the head of the
stairs and saw three or four people listening to
us and smiling. In fact, they threw down a couple
of pennies. So I said to the kids I was working
with, 'no more chocolate syrup. It's show business
from now on.' 

We called ourselves the Peewee Quartet. We started
out singing on ferryboats, in saloons and on
street corners. We'd put our hats down for
donations. Sometimes the customers threw something
in the hats. Sometimes they took something out of
the hats. Sometimes they took the hats." -George
Burns

Burns quit school in the fourth grade to go into
show business full-time. He tried various avenues
of entertainment. By the time he was 14, he'd been
a trick roller skater, a dance teacher, a singer
and an adagio dancer in small-time
Vaudeville|vaudeville. He also took up cigar
smoking seriously and changed his name from Nathan
Birnbaum to George Burns.

===Gracie Allen===
Burns usually worked with a girl, sometimes doing
an adagio dance, sometimes just funny patter.
George's act was constantly shifting from dancing
to attempts at comedy and didn't seem to be going
anyplace until he met Gracie Allen in 1923, when
the two of them formed a team.

When they first teamed up, George was the comic
and Gracie was the "straight" woman. But they
switched roles after their first performance in
Hoboken, New Jersey, when she drew all the big
laughs. As a result, their act quickly evolved
into what was known in vaudeville circles as a
"Dumb Dora" act.


Burns and Allen worked together, growing more and
more successful with their Dumb Dora act and
establishing a reputation for themselves until
they wound up playing the Palace Theatre, New
York|Palace, the fulfillment of every
vaudevillian's dream. With success came love, and
George and Gracie were married on January 7, 1926,
in Cleveland.

Their feature credits in the mid- to late-1930s
included the following: The Big Broadcast of 1932;
International House (1933 movie)|International
House in 1933; Six of a Kind in 1934; The Big
Broadcast of 1936; The Big Broadcast of 1937; A
Damsel in Distress in 1937 and College Swing in
1938, in which Bob Hope made one of his early film
appearances.

In a strange way, Burns and Allen were indirectly
responsible for the Hope and Crosby "road"
pictures. In 1938, William LeBaron, producer and
managing director at Paramount Studios|Paramount,
had a script prepared by Don Hartman and Frank
Butler. It was to star Burns and Allen with a
young crooner named Bing Crosby. But the story
didn't seem to fit George and Gracie, so LeBaron
ordered Hartman and Butler to rewrite their script
to fit two male co-stars--Hope and Crosby. The
script was titled Road to Singapore and it made
motion-picture history.

The duo's mainstay was a weekly radio comedy
series that first aired on February 15, 1932. 
Originally focusing on patter and sketches,
basically an audio version of their stage act, and
later on wacky publicity stunts involving Gracie,
such as running for President of the United
States. By 1942, the series had developed into a
situation comedy, focusing on the relationship
between the pair as husband and wife, and their
friends and neighbors. The supporting cast during
this phase included Mel Blanc as the melancholy,
ironically named "Happy Postman";  Bea Benaderet
and Hal March as neighbors Blance and Harry
Morton; and the various members of Gracie's
ladies' club, the Beverly Hills Uplift Society.
One running gag during this period, stretching
into the television era, was Burns' singing voice,
as Gracie lovingly referred to her husband as
"Sugar Throat."    
The show enjoyed great success, maintaining a top
10 position until they took the show to television
in 1950.  

In 1955, Burns and Allen founded McCadden
Corporation, which had its headquarters on the
General Service Studio lot in the heart of
Hollywood, to film television shows and
commercials. Besides "The George Burns and Gracie
Allen Show," which was very successful, the
company produced such television series as "The
Bob Cummings Show," "The People's Choice,"
starring Jackie Cooper; "Mona McClusky," starring
Juliet Prowse and "Mister Ed," starring Alan Young
and a talented "talking" horse. The "Burns and
Allen Show" ran through 1958, when Gracie decided
to retire due to her heart condition.

===Traveling entertainer===
After Gracie died of a heart attack in 1964, Burns
immersed himself in work. His company coproduced
the television series "No Time For Sergeants,"
based on the hit Broadway play. Simultaneously he
toured the country playing nightclub and theater
engagements with such diverse partners as Carol
Channing, Dorothy Provine, Jane Russell, Connie
Haines and Berle Davis. Burns also embarked on a
series of solo concerts, playing university
campuses, New York's Philharmonic Hall and winding
up a successful season at the prestigious Carnegie
Hall, where he wowed a capacity audience with his
show-stopping songs, dances and jokes.

In 1974, Jack Benny, who was managed by Irving
Fein at the time, signed to play one of the lead
roles in the film version of Neil Simon's The
Sunshine Boys. But Benny, who was feeling ill,
told Fein to let long-time friend Burns fill in
for him on a series of nightclub dates to which
Benny had committed around the United States. "The
Sunshine Boys is going to keep me busy for six
months," Benny told Fein, "so why don't you give
the work to George?"

Burns didn't need the money, yet he gladly
accepted the engagements because he enjoyed
working and keeping busy. Burns always believed
that when you stop working, you shrivel up and
die. As he recalled years later, "The happiest
people I know are the ones that are still working.
The saddest are the ones who are retired. Very few
performers retire on their own. It's usually
because no one wants them. Six years ago Sinatra
announced his retirement. He's still working." B

Benny's illness (pancreatic cancer) led to Burns
replacing him in the film as well (Benny died
shortly therafter). Burns' performance as faded
vaudevillian Al Lewis earned him an Academy Award
for Best Supporting Actor, and led to a career
resurgence. At the time, Burns was the oldest
Academy Award winner (Jessica Tandy, when she won
for Driving Miss Daisy, was two months older).    
  

===Later years===

In 1977, Burns made another hit film Oh, God!,
playing the title role opposite John Denver. The
film inspired two sequels. Burns continued to be
active well into his nineties, writing a number of
books and appearing in films and television. 

Burns remained deeply devoted to Allen after she
passed away.  He never re-married, and though he
developed a running gag|running joke of being a
sexy senior citizen (he was often seen in the
company of beautiful young women), he was never
crude and his devotion to his wife was
unquestioned up until his death.  On his
relationships, he said, "I'd go out with women my
age, but there are no women my age."

Burns had long planned to celebrate his 100th
birthday by performing at the London Palladium. 
However, in 1994, Burns was badly injured in a
fall and his health steadily declined. He died
forty three days after his 100th birthday in 1996.
Burns faced death very bravely; he often said that
in a way he was looking forward to it. He believed
he would be reunited with Gracie in Heaven.

==Selected filmography==

* Radioland Murders (1994)
* 18 Again! (1988)
* Oh, God! You Devil! (1984)
* Oh, God! Book II (1980)
* Just You and Me, Kid (1979)
* Going in Style (1979)
* Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
(movie)|Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
(1978)
* Oh God! (1977)
* The Sunshine Boys (1975) (Academy Award|Oscar)
* The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956) (narrated)
* Honolulu (1939)
* College Swing (1938)
* A Damsel in Distress (1937) (1st Fred Astaire
movie without Ginger Rogers & 1st in which Burns
and Allen danced)
* Here Comes Cookie (1936)
* Love in Bloom (1935)
* We're Not Dressing (1934)
* Six Of A Kind (1934)
* Many Happy Returns (1934) (1st leading role)
* International House (1933)
* College Humor (1933)
* The Big Broadcast (1932) (1st feature film)
* Lambchops (1929) (a "short" film)

==Radio series==

*The Robert Burns Panatella Show: 1932 - 1933 CBS
In their debut series, George and Gracie shared
the bill with Guy Lombardo and his Orchestra.  The
pair launched themselves into national stardom
with their first major publicity stunt, Gracie's
ongoing search for her missing brother.
*The White Owl Program: 1933 - 1934 CBS
*The Adventures of Gracie: 1934 - 1935 CBS
*The Campbell's Tomato Juice Program: 1935 - 1937
CBS
*The Grape Nuts Program: 1937 - 1938 NBC
*The Chesterfield Program: 1938 - 1939 CBS
*The Hinds Honey and Almond Cream Program: 1939 -
1940 CBS
This series featured another wildly successful
publicity stunt which had Gracie running for
President of the United States.
*The Hormel Program: 1940 - 1941 NBC
Advertising a brand new product called "Spam". . .
this show featured musical numbers by jazz great
Artie Shaw.
*The Swan Soap Show: 1941 - 1945 NBC, CBS
This series featured a radical format change, in
that George and Gracie played themselves as a
married couple for the first time, and the show
became a full-fledged domestic situation comedy. 
This was George's response to a marked drop in
ratings under the old "Flirtation Act" format.
*Maxwell House Coffee Time: 1945 - 1949 NBC
*The Amm-i-Dent Toothpaste Show: 1949 - 1950 CBS

==TV series==

*Burns and Allen|The George Burns and Gracie Allen
Show: 1950 - 1958 CBS
Broadcast live every other week for the first two
seasons, 26 episodes per year.  Starting in the
third season, all episodes were filmed and
broadcast weekly, 40 episodes per year.  There
were 291 episodes created in all.
*The George Burns Show: (1958 - 1959) NBC
An unsuccessful attempt to continue the format of
Burns and Allen|The George Burns and Gracie Allen
Show without Gracie, the rest of the cast intact. 

*Wendy and Me: (1958 - 1959) NBC
George plays narrator in this short-lived series,
just as he had in Burns and Allen|The George Burns
and Gracie Allen Show, but with far less on-screen
time, as the focus is on a young couple played by
Connie Stevens and Ron Harper.  Connie Stevens is,
essentially, playing a version of Gracie's
character.
*George Burns Comedy Week: (1985) CBS
Another short-lived series, this time a weekly
comedy anthology program whose only connecting
thread was George's presence as host.  He does not
appear in any of the actual storylines.  He was 89
years old when the series was filmed.

==External links==

*imdb name|id=0122675|name=George Burns
*http://new.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/
People_Profile/0,2540,3,00.html An Interview
giving details on his life
*http://www.classicimages.com/1996/april/georgebur
ns.shtml A more detailed profile of his life